Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett says the 34-year-old driver was taking a nap before her vehicle accelerated onto a youth soccer field, killing two.
Post updated at 11:03 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12:
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Thursday that he will not be charging a 34-year-old woman from Garden City who drove onto a soccer field at Stryker Sports Complex in a deadly incident last month.
The district attorney said the results of a nearly month-long investigation into the accident revealed that the driver fell asleep in what she thought was a parked vehicle.
“As bad as this was, it is not a crime,” Bennett said. “This is a civil matter that will be handled under a negligence standard, which is the standard in civil cases. This is not a crime, and I cannot charge this driver with a crime.”
Two people — 6-year-old Cole Adrian and 35-year-old Nicholas Schafer of McPherson — were killed when the Chevrolet Silverado drove onto the field and through the sidelines of an active youth soccer match.
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Ten people were injured in the incident, ranging in age from 5 to 68 years old. Bennett said none of those people are “facing critical injuries at this time.”
Asked during a news conference Thursday if he thought new evidence could come to light and result in charges against the driver, Bennett said he doubted it.
“I think we’re done here,” he said, citing more than 100 interviews and an investigation that included footage from security cameras and cell phones, as well as toxicology reports and reenactments with automotive technicians.
Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan shared a timeline of events from the day of the crash, which started with the driver leaving Garden City around 7 a.m. to make the trip to Wichita with her three children for their soccer games.
Bennett said she was driving her husband’s truck, which she did not normally drive. The woman and her children arrived at the sports complex by 10:40 a.m. for the first set of soccer games. The family left the complex to get lunch and do some shopping in the area.
The parking lots were crowded by the time the woman returned to Stryker. Investigators said video from the parking lot showed the Chevrolet truck circling the lot for several minutes before pulling into one of the few remaining stalls.
“Through a sad coincidence, she finds the one stall that’s right there in front with an open pathway onto the fields,” Bennett said. “No indication whatsoever that she waited for that stall to come open, it’s just happenstance.”
The woman told investigators that after she pulled into the parking stall, she decided to take a nap. The woman’s 14-year-old daughter told detectives that she covered the windshield with a sun shade after her mother fell asleep.
Police said surveillance video from the complex showed that the truck was stationary for 46 minutes before it accelerated onto the field. Witnesses who spoke with police reported that the woman seemed “sleepy” and that she was “crying hysterically” as she got out of the truck.
Bennett said he met with Sullivan at the beginning of the investigation and committed to try and “know everything that is knowable.”
The district attorney said his office and the police department considered a variety of scenarios to explain the crash, including a medical emergency, intoxication or other sources of impairment, a mechanical issue with the truck or an intentional act.
A sample of the woman’s blood that was tested by the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center reportedly did not show the presence of any impairing substances. Her medical records showed no outstanding issue. A General Motors engineer and technician who flew in to Wichita to examine the car found no mechanical issues, Bennett said.
A closer look at the vehicle proved to be key in investigators’ ultimate conclusion that the woman likely fell asleep without putting the truck in park.
Two of the woman’s children told police they exited the truck after their mother went to sleep. They each said they had to unlock the doors to get out. An investigative report from Bennett’s office notes that the Silverado model of Chevrolet truck automatically locks the doors when the truck is in drive.
Wichita police went to a local Chevrolet dealership and borrowed a truck of the same make, model and mileage as the one in the crash.
Using the twin truck, investigators discovered the vehicle could stall against the 7-inch curb in the parking spot while still in drive. Bennett said even light pressure on the gas pedal brought the truck over the curb and on to the field during the reenactment.
“I can not only find no evidence of an intentional crime,” he said, “I can find affirmative evidence that there was not an intentional crime.”
Bennett’s report said “without the act of leaving the car in drive (or someone inadvertently placing the truck into drive without the driver’s knowledge) this wreck would not have occurred.”
The district attorney said ultimately he had to decide whether that “single act of inattentiveness” showed a conscious disregard of risk by the woman — the standard state law requires for first- or second-degree murder, child endangerment or involuntary manslaughter charges.
Bennett said he found it did not meet that standard.
“Would Chief Sullivan send the cops through the parking lot now, of every soccer game … looking for sleepy parents on Saturday mornings who are taking a nap in their car and go, ‘Bud, you’re guilty of reckless endangering’? … No, of course not.”
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KMUW, KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KRPS and High Plains Public Radio.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
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